We just left the Plaster House, which is the boarding house
for the Arusha Lutheran Medical Center.
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| A Mama and one of her children at Plaster House. They do amazing work providing food and shelter to children recovering after surgery. |
Arriving with toys, colors, Legos, note pads, erasers, and
balls (all brought by Sue) was a great idea – it was an ice breaker with the
kids because kids in any country still are the same at their core – smiling,
playful, curious, yet a bit reserved. A few of the children had been to school before and were great artists so they were excited to have paper, pencils, and colors to use.
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| With a Mama from Plaster House. She had 2 of her 4 children with her. |
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| Sweet little guy enjoying his new crayon and paper |
There was one Mama who had 4 children, 2 of which were at the center. One was 7-years old but the size of a 2-year
old. He seemed to have both physical and
mental developmental delays and her other child had a clubfoot. Her daughter with the cast on her foot was my
best friend. I taught her “hug” and we
colored, played on my phone looking at pictures, and her Mama was eager for me
to take her picture. The Mama enjoyed looking at my photos on my phone of the
two of us together and then the pictures of my babies. As with children, Mamas in any country are
the same… proud of their babies.
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| The Mama little girl I taught to say "bye" and "hug". She mastered the iPhone camera! |
Seeing the babies was a very emotional experience for
me. These mamas all sitting around with
their little babies – one was a 3 year old named Paulina and another 7-month
old baby boy. Using our guide Joyce I
was able to tell the Mamas that I too had a little girl named Pauline and a
7-month old baby. Hopefully they felt a
bit of a connection, however, the people of Tanzania are a very low key, soft
spoken people so excitement is hard to come by.
I didn’t want to leave.
It’s not that I felt pity for these children, but playing with them,
tickling them, teaching them to blow raspberries with their mouths, just felt
so right – helping these kids be kids for a minute and not a kid with a
disability. If I could have given them
everything I had I would.
How I wish I
could do more for all these children but I know that the care they are
receiving at the Plaster House is amazing.
There are 5 house moms who work for 4 weeks then go home for 1 week
caring for all these children.
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| He loved seeing his face on the camera! |
The Plaster House is currently an 18-bed facility with 49
children, at least 10 Mamas, and 4 house moms.
The communal courtyard seemed to be the hang out area as mattresses were
stacked high in the corner. They are
building a new facility that is a 50-bed house so I imagine as soon as that
opens they will have well over that number since no one is turned away. The children can stay here as long as they
need to –whether that is a few days for a cleft patient or months for patients
requiring plaster casts to be replaced weekly.
What a blessing to have my eyes opened yet again to the
‘real Africa’. Our Hotel is amazing but
it’s not Africa – this was Africa.
Next up, a patient village in Moshi.
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| In front of Angela's home. 3 families share this common cooking/ washing area. |
We got to go see Mama Ana and her daughter Monica who is 3 ½
years old. They live on the border of
Tanzania and Kenya outside of Moshi.
When Angela was born her mother was very sad, as she had never seen anything
like this before; Angela also had a congenital issue with her eyes that
required surgery. A friend of Mama Ana
told her to go to Arusha and it could be fixed.
She took a bus into Moshi and another into Arusha – which after being
here I realize that is such a huge venture away from their home. To us a 90-minute drive is nothing, to them
it’s another world.
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| Angela's friends and sister in the way back of the picture. |
Angela was
extremely shy and afraid of all of us so I don't have any pictures of her. I would have been too – but her Mama
was very quick to invite us into her home.
They lived in a room they pay $4 for; Mama Ana and Angela, her sister
age 7) and her father. Inside their home
are a queen size bed, 2 chairs and a few posters on the wall. All in all their house is about a 10x10
square. Running water is non-existent as
is electricity.
The kids in the neighboring houses were excited to see us
and play games and learn how to throw a Frisbee. By the time we left Angela was smiling and
happy to smile for us – as long as we stayed on our bus J
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| Our youngest patient with her 2 sisters and brother (and me). They did smile but not for my picture :) |
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| Dr. Gitahi teaching her to say "welcome" in English |
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| Dr. Gitahi greeting Grandma, who lived just up the hill |
Next up was a visit with another sweet little girl & her brother (14)
and 2 sisters (ages 10 and 7). She was about 3 and had her surgery in 2012. The repair was done so well, it was hard to tell it had even been done!
These kids were all very kind but very reserved and a bit protective. Again, the language barrier was present and I wish I had words to tell them thank you for letting us take their picture. Hopefully they saw it in our eyes. Their home setup was more expansive than others as they had a stable with a cow, a bunny, many chickens a goat and some crops. It was a bigger house with what looked like 2 rooms and Grandma living up the hill. In order to reach this house we had to hike about ¼ mile through a single track trail that would have been considered a ‘hard trail run’ if I had my running buddy, Callie, with me. This is the walk her family makes daily to go to anywhere.
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| Little boy, probably 7 or 8, doing what boys do... showing off for the camera |
Upon leaving this last house there was a group of about 12 kids
sitting on a hillside one of them doing handstands. I went back and got him to do it again and
took a picture to show him. The bigger
boys sitting behind him were saying, “photograph” so they obviously were in
school.
One other boy and a girl were
curious about the photo and he decided to do a little showing off so I made a
movie of him walking on his hands and showed him. That got a good laugh out of them all. As we were leaving their Mama was calling to
them; hopefully I didn’t get them in trouble.
Driving through Moshi and the rural areas is an
experience. Children as old as 5 are
herding animals on the road side, everyone is walking no more than 1 foot from
the road where cars are driving, passing each other, weaving, and honking. I was told that car accidents are the #3
cause of death here. I see why. I did notice some Masai men walking along the
road in their red robes/gowns/wraps and getting on the bus to go back to their
villages. There is definitely a culture
of hard work here.
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| 2 wonderful workers from the Arusha Lutheran Medical Center & Plaster House |
Between lunch and the home visits we got to go to the market
and do some shopping. Our guide, Joyce,
took us for a traditional Tanzanian lunch served buffet style. I opted for cooked greens (kale &
pumpkin), rice, beans, and potatoes/fries.
It was delicious! The drink Coca-Cola
is everywhere. I remember years ago seeing a Coke ad that showed people all around the world drinking Coke and one of
them was an African man in red traditional attire; now I know that was a Masai
man and yes – they do drink Coke too.
That wasn’t a marketing gimmick.
So the shopping was fun. Since we didn’t plan on going to another store
for shopping I did most of my shopping there.
While I wanted to buy everything I just got a few small things realizing
that even though everyone wants lots of ‘stuff’ back home more ‘stuff’ is the
last thing we need. I tried to get
usable items that weren’t just going to sit; that’s just so wasteful.
My biggest take away from this trip is how much excess we
have in America and I’m as guilty as anyone of having too much and wanting too
much. We could learn some lessons from
the people here – be content with what we have, live a life that is wholly
focused on family and not focused on the family next door or anyone else’s
things or opinions. The Africans here
are a very content people, happy to invite us into their home without apology
or excuse. Things are tiny and tidy with
just what they need, no more.
Onto dinner. We ate
at Bay Leaf and had an amazing meal in African time. Dinner was ordered around 7:30 and at about
8:15 our appetizers came, around 9:15 our dinner, and around 10:15
dessert. It was a very pleasant way to
spend the evening visiting with everyone. We also celebrated Jane's (from Smile Train Africa) birthday - yummy cake!
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